Deception
by midnightloversinparis
Summary: Ari, Cleo, Emma, Bella and Rikki are five mermaids that have been betrayed by their families once they accidentally reveal their secret, they flee to Hawaii where Ari was changed and meet her real father, a navy SEAL by the name of Steve McGarrett who runs five-0 for the Hawaiin Govenor. Will he run scared as well when he finds out Ari's and the girls secrets?
1. Chapter 1

**I noticed that there were not any H20:just add water and Hawaii five-0 crossovers, so I decided to make one, I hope you like it. Please not it is without a beta and I am only 14. Note this does contain an OC, Arianna, I could change it if people didn't like it, please tell me what you thought. **

**Diclaimer: I do not own neither Hawaii five-0 (2010 series) or H20: just add water. **

All I wanted to do today was have an amazingly hot bath, or a swim, no a bath. I needed to just relax, let the water work its magic on my stressed muscles, it had been a long week after all. My name is Arianna and I am a mermaid, I was changed a long time ago in my home of Hawaii. My mum had to move to Australia for a navy post, she was always on the ship and never had any time for me, so I was shocked when she took a week off just to spend with me and my annoying brat of a younger sister. Here I met with four other mermaids and we became best friends, their names are Cleo, Bella, Emma and Rikki, it was strange to me to finally have people to share my secret with and that actually understood what I was going through.

I hurried through the door and went to the bathroom, shouting a quick 'hey' to my annoying mother, I quickly closed the door and began filling the bathtub with water. Once it was ¾ full I pulled my clothes off and plonked myself into the bathtub, looking over strangely as I turned into water for a split second before my legs started to fuse together, in my opinion being a mermaid is just the best. I silently laid there just remembering all the happy memories that had occurred from being a mermaid when I heard the door knob turn. I panicked and started to twist and turn, hoping that I could cover myself somehow, but it was too late, my mum walked in and gasped as she saw my brilliant now-purple tail. It took about five minutes of awkward silence for me whilst she just gaped at my tail before she said something.

"Dry yourself off young lady, your father and I need to talk to you." And with that she turned and left yelling my father's name as she went down the corridor.

My stomach flipped, we kept the secret for a reason, others just wouldn't understand and that's what category my mum was in, I could see it on her face; disgust. With a heavy sigh I pulled the plug to allow the water to drain from the tub and dried myself off with a towel. I could hear the urgent fighting of my parents as they discussed what to do with me, I caught the words Dr. Denman and knew I was in for it. I could connect telepathically with other mermaids, we all could after some training that one of the local Spirit Gods in Hawaii taught me and what I passed onto my friends.

"_Guys, guys." _I thought urgently focusing on my breathing and feeling the magic within myself.

"_Yeah, what is it Arianna?" _Cleo answered, I took a deep breathe, I needed to focus and not get worked up or I would be able to tell them in time.

"_My mum walked in on me in the bath with a tail. Now she and my dad are talking about giving me to Dr. Denman. I'm scared, I don't know what to do." _I thought in an urgent voice and I could feel that Bella and Emma had joined in the conversation.

"_What, she wouldn't do that." _ Bella said urgently, off all our mermaid friends, I got along best with Bella and Cleo.

"_My dad is literally calling her now." _I said in a panicked voice.

"_Ok, at the first chance you get; escape, go to the cliff. We'll all be there waiting for you, just relax, if you feel you need to, use your powers. We have to tell Rikki. Good luck Ari, it looks like our secret is getting out today."_ Emma said in her bossy voice, but I was glad for her bossiness now, it was what I needed. We all agreed and went off to do our separate things. I sighed as I looked down and saw that I had no tail, I got up and went into my room to change, I shoved my wallet along with my passport into my jeans pocket so I could leave to any country. I gulped and walked out into the living room where an angry mum and dad were waiting for me.

"Sit down Arianna." My dad said, his face expressionless, although I could tell he was angry by his use of my full name. I sat down nervously and started fidgeting with my hands.

"Well, you know why you're here." My mum said, her face was red with anger. I didn't understand the anger, it was strange to me.

"Because I'm a mermaid?" I asked in a monotone, my parents looked furious at me.

"Mermaids do not exist, what you are is something weird, so we called a marine biologist Dr. Denman about you." My father said, his face going redder and redder.

"Oh yay, the mythological creature psychopath." I said sarcastically, "Hope she doesn't dissect me." My father stood up, he looked as though he was going to hit me but I was ready for him, what I wasn't ready for, was my mother. She slapped me across the face so hard, I lifted a tentative hand to my face and it felt red-hot and I felt tears gathering at my eyes.

"You will not talk about her like that, Dr. Denman is a good friend of mine." My mum said, raising her had to strike again, I was ready for her this time, she went to launch at me again and I blew my mother and my father into the wall and smiled as I heard a loud thump. I knew I needed to act fast before they knew what was happening. I grabbed the keys to my dad's car and ran out the door quickly to the car and threw myself in the driver's side and sped off to the cliff. Tears rushed down my face as I was driving, going way too much over the speed limit.

I finally reached the cliff but was disappointed to see that none of my friends were there yet, I went over to sit at the bench, letting the tears flow freely down my face as I waited for them. With my in-tune fish hearing I could hear people approaching me but I knew it wasn't my friends, it was my family they had known where I would go. They sounded like they were about 250metres back so I ignored them for now, but I was ready for everything. My hand twitched and the wind started to pick up, Dr. Denman didn't suspect anything of it because she hadn't experienced the full wrath of our powers.

"We just have to ensure that it doesn't go in the water or we'll never catch it." Said a voice that I didn't recognise. Suddenly I could hear more people, other families. My mum obviously being the gossiper that she is probably told everyone what I was. I quickly got up of the bench and slowly walked over to the cliff-face preparing myself to jump.

"_It's ok Ari, we made it. We're right behind you. We won't let anything happen to you." _Said the sweet voice of Bella, I smiled and knew she would understand.

"Arianna Rose Fletcher, you stop right there." Said the angry voice of my father, I rolled my eyes, but stopped and turned to face him with a malicious glint in my eye.

"Right, now Arianna, I simply need you to come with me so I can run some tests." Said the voice from Dr. Denman, in a calm and slow way as if I was mentally slow, I scoffed and turned back to the ocean and took another couple of steps forward.

"Arianna, what do you think is going to happen after you jump into the ocean, where will you go? You have no money or anything to help you out there! Don't be stupid and go with the doctor." Said the stern voice of my mother, I was enjoying this a little too much, these people were meant to love me unconditionally, but of course, in their eyes I had to be fully human. I turned to face them.

"Do you like tornadoes?" I asked in a mysterious voice.

"Stupid girl, it's clear that whatever drug she has taken has gone straight to her head." Said Mrs. Gilbert, I could see the hurt in Emma's eyes for split second before it became determination as she came over to stand next to me.

"Why do you think I quit swimming lessons mum, all the clues have been right there. Doesn't everyone just love blizzards?" Emma asked glaring at her mother.

"Bella, these new friends of yours are strange, I do hope that you are not taking any of the drugs that they have been clearing doing." Bella's eyes were murderous as she came over to stand next to my other side.

"We are not stupid or drug addicts, we are something that none of you can comprehend. I do hope you guys like tsunamis." Bella said, catching onto our game.

We heard Cleo's father scoff and her little sister roll her eyes before Cleo decided to join us, her father grabbed her arm and tried pulling her back but she pulled herself free and joined us. "I am not scared of the ocean like everyone thinks, I love it but I love hurricanes more." Cleo said with a smirk before Rikki waltzed in a joined us.

"I personally love fire and lightening." She said laughing at the expressions on everyone's faces. Dr. Denman stepped forward.

"Come on guys, think this through, you can't just through water at us and try to escape, its not possible, one of us will get you." She said with an evil smile on her face.

"_Rikki get the cameras and everything, Ari, do you think you can sing whilst making a tornado?" _Bella said, stepping back slightly.

"_Where should we go?" _Cleo asked, fear present in her voice.

"_Hawaii? It's where I'm from and it's a beautiful place." _I said with determination.

Rikki stepped forward and made use of her magnetic powers and destroyed all of the cameras that were flashing magnificently in our direction. I stepped forward and started to sing, just the song that comes to mermaids when they have this power, no words, just notes. It only took a few seconds before everyone started to get very sleepy, they all started to collapse under the weight of exhaustion, everyone except Dr. Denman, she smiled as she saw what I was doing didn't affect her, yet anyway, we had a special show saved, just for her.

As I sung I lifted my hand up into the air and made a loose claw pointing straight at Dr. Denman, the other four girls did the same with their powers and all of a sudden a magnificent weather show was playing out in front of us. Rikki had thunder and lightning and fire all around Dr. Denman, Bella had ginormous waves crashing around her as the ground almost seemed to rattle, Cleo had a large hurricane around her whilst Emma had a blizzard raining down on the evil doctor. She covered her face and crouched down to the ground, something about that image brought a smile to my face, we brought the intense and unheard of storm closer and closer to her, over the roaring of the wind we heard her whimper a little and I instantly felt bad. I ceased the storm and so did the others, but I was still singing.

"Wow, girls, you certainly have gotten more powerful, but I still think you're stupid for leaving, somehow we will find you." Dr. Denman said, the eil glint in her eyes returning.

"Do you know what Ari is doing right now?" Rikki asked innocently.

"I have no idea why she feels the need to sing so badly." The doctor said sarcastically.

"She's wiping everyone's memories, no one will remember this day, not even you." Emma said, a smile spreading across her face, as fear spread across Dr. Denman's and she tried to turn and run. Rikki had beaten her to it, there was no way past from the massive inferno of extremely hot fire. She slowly turned to face us again.

"We would never hurt you, but you seem to want to hurt us. We just want to live in peace, without nosy scientists poking their noses into everything." Cleo said, her voice fierce, they all turned to look at me as I turned to look at Dr. Denman, looking her right in the eyes. In the last couple of years, I have learnt to harness this power, I can make large gaps disappear from their memories, I can also take away a memory from years ago.

I sung louder, my voice echoing off the ocean as the creatures were helping us, I quickly scanned her memories whilst she was under my trance and found the one I was looking for; Emma, Rikki and Cleo in the moon pool as mermaids with scared expressions on their faces and anything since then that had to do with mermaid, I removed it all. She would have large gaps of memory, but it was for the best. Once I was finished, I stopped singing and nodded to the girls, wiping that many people's memories was a tough job.

We all turned away from the carnage that we had created and started walking slowly towards the cliff-face. I looked down at the ocean, it was like it was calling to me, all of us, to join it. We looked at each other for barely a moment as we linked hands and jumped off the cliff together, like we always did. The water was warm and beautiful as always, we wasted no time in heading straight for our beautiful mermaid home, the moon pool at Mako Island. We were saying our goodbyes to our home. We surfaced at the moon pool and looked it over sadly.

"You know what." I said, determination clear in my voice. "We should block the entrances, all of them, the volcano too."

"How are we going to do that?" Emma said with annoyance.

"Easy, Cleo makes the water fit and Bella hardens it, nothing could get through that." I said, looking at Bella who seemed to be agreeing with me.

"Ari's right guys, we can't leave this place, for who knows how long to leave it at the hands of some other person who wants to harm it. I couldn't see that again." Bella said, looking at Cleo and Rikki, Emma seemed to have warmed up once she realised our determination behind it. Cleo nodded and looked at the moon pool in determination, her arm in the air as a tentacle of water came out, she took it over to the hidden entrance at the top and Bella followed her. Cleo made it fit perfectly, and Bella turned it to jelly and then quickly hardened it, she kept her hand up to harden it for almost a minute, to make it harder than rock. They did the same for the volcano top and made one for the mermaid entrance, but we had to get out first.

We looked at our home sadly and turned to leave, but as we went to go back into the pool, a tentacle of water shot out at us and one of the rock pools dried up, leaving behind places for five crystals. We looked at each other and knew what we had to do, we ripped the necklaces off our necks and undid the biding holding the crystal to the string and placed the crystal in the grooves of the rock. As the last crystal was placed there, the tentacle started to move again, it went around all of us and pulled us into the moon pool, as something like a video started to play. It showed us, now, watching this video and then leaving to go to Hawaii, I could tell from the pictures. We felt like home, we got a house for the five of us and went to school. It showed us some of the things we had done and the things we were going to do and finally it showed us coming back here, we looked exactly the same, but it told us that it was the year 2045. And then it ended, and I have to admit, I did shed a tear or two.

"What was that?" Emma said in awe.

"That was the moon pool saying goodbye to us." I said, still sniffling as Cleo put her arm around me.

"So, we're coming back in in 2045, but we look exactly the same, are we immortal?" Rikki asked, half nervously, half excitedly.

Bella nodded, her eyes fixed where the video was just playing. "But what about Ms. Chatham, she was really old." Said Rikki, earning a look from Emma.

"She gave it up." I said simply, the rest looked at me like it all made sense now. Rikki pulled herself out of the pool and quickly dried herself off and walked over to where our crystals were.

"That's right, she may have been immortal once she was a mermaid, but she was only one for a short time, once she gave it up, she started to age again." Cleo said excitedly, Rikki returned with all of our crystals and string and handed them to each of us and we quickly restrung them and hung them around our necks.

Emma sighed, "We should get going, Hawaii is a long swim." We all looked at the magical moon pool and each thought how much we would miss it.

"We'll never forget you and all you did for us, thank you." Said Cleo, under normal circumstances this would have earned a nasty comment from Rikki, but she was thinking the same thing.

"Just think girls, 32 years and we'll be back. I already can't wait." Rikki said, her eyes gleaming with tears. I nodded solemnly and we all started to leave. After the last one of us had left Cleo lifted the third tunnel block and lifted it into place and stuck it securely. With one last final glance at each other we swam away towards our new home and our new life.


	2. Chapter 2

_**6 Months Ago, Oahu, Hawaii. Steve McGarrett's house. **_

Steve was exhausted, the Hesse brothers were dead, finally. He was still mourning the loss of his father though, it was hard to step back into that house without thinking about him, the good memories that they had shared together, his mum and dad and little sister and, of course, him. He sighed and walked further into the living room and threw his bag onto the sofa. He took a deep breath and walked into the study where his father had his last moments. He walked over to the desk and started pulling the drawers open, trying to find some more clues on this supposed investigation he was running into the HPD and the Hawaiian Government. He pulled open a drawer and saw a letter addressed to him, curiously he opened it and pulled out a letter with a few photos.

"_Dear Steve,_

_I do know that this is short notice and I am sorry for bothering you. Although I highly doubt that you are at the house right now. I just wanted you to know something and I'm really sorry that you are only just finding out now and I know that this will be a shock to you. I have a daughter, Arianna, she's 17 years old and smart, funny, talented, hates swimming. The thing is, Arianna, is your daughter too. I'm sorry that this revelation has come to you so late in her life and it must be very confusing, but she is. _

_The only reason I am telling you this, is because we are in Hawaii now because of my work, but we are leaving, tomorrow and I will not tell you where I am going. I'm truly sorry Steve, but you can't meet her, me and my husband are happy with our family and all her life Arianna has known Dave to be her father, not you. I feel that this would be much too traumatising for her. I'm sorry but as her mother, I cannot allow you to see her at all. I am sure that you're wondering why I am even writing you this letter, it's because I would want to know if I had a child and I'm sure you do too, one day, when she is much older, I am sure that the two of you will meet again, but for now, I have to be a responsible parent._

_Sarina."_

Steve looked over the letter and couldn't believe his eyes, he didn't trust them, even though he had 20/20 vision. He read it several times before sinking down onto the work chair. He had a daughter, he had a 17 year old daughter that he never knew about. Steve took out some of the photos and smiled at them. There she was; as a baby, as a small child and how she is now. A school picture and a photo of her by the beach near his house. His heart sank, she was this close and he'd been in South Korea chasing the Hesse brothers. He looked at the date on the postage, and his heart sand further, it was posted more than five months ago. They would be who knows where with his daughter, his beautiful daughter that looked a lot like him.

He sighed and turned to the computer and tried to track down Sarina Fletcher, he knew some of the information, her husband's name was Dave Fletcher and Steve's daughter's name was Arianna Fletcher, it should be Arianna McGarrett. He thought that he would find them quickly, how many Fletcher's could there be. Although, as the months went on and his new job was more and more demanding, he found less time to try and track down his mysterious daughter.

_**Present day; somewhere in the Pacific Ocean **_

"Ok, I think we're lost." Emma said in a frustrated voice, I knew how she felt, I was frustrated too, I just wanted to go home, to my beautiful Hawaii.

"No, we are in the Pacific Ocean, we're in the right ocean." I said with determination.

"Ari, we've been swimming for god knows how long, can't we just give up." Rikki said, I never knew that she was one to give up.

"Wait, look at the moon, its pretty full, don't you think?" Bella said mysteriously, looking up at the moon.

"Yeah, why Bella." Cleo asked curiously.

"Well, seeing as Ari changed in the moon pool in Hawaii, if she gets moonstruck, she'll want to swim to that moon pool. Whenever I see the full moon, I want to go to the cave in Ireland. Its natural." She explained and it all made sense to me.

"It's not full now though, we would have all been moonstruck by now and I don't feel as strong of a pull as I do when it's full." I said, a large smile on my face, in a possible number of days, I would be home.

"I reckon it might be full tomorrow." Emma said, looking up at it. "Maybe we should just explore this area for now until tomorrow." We all agreed, we were pretty tired, Hawaii is quite close to Queensland, but it's still a long swim, even if you do have super fishy speed .We dived down towards the bottom of the ocean and half-explored and half-rested whilst we waited anxiously for tomorrow.

. . . .

Tomorrow came very quickly, we resurfaced and stared straight at the moon, well I did. The others agreed they couldn't get moonstruck or they'd want to go home. So I stared at the beautiful moon all by myself. After several minutes of staring at the majesty that is the moon, I had a real desire to go home, to my moon pool that I had missed for all these months. And with that thought, I kicked up my tail and started swimming in the right direction, the others quickly followed me. It only took a few hours before we were at the familiar cliff face, the others surfaced and I did too.

"Where is it Ari?" Cleo asked.

"The water entrance is down in the cliff face, it's a fair swim as the pool is actually in the middle of the forest and no room for breath." I said excitedly and motioned for them to follow me. I quickly found the small entrance, hidden by coral and squeezed myself through and started swimming, I could feel the others following me, but I didn't turn around and acknowledge them because I wanted to get to the moon pool. After about half an hour of swimming as fast as we could in the narrow tunnel, we reached to pool.

It was much larger than the one in Queensland and is right in the middle of one of Hawaii's forests that is very hard to get to. The entrance is hidden by large trees that are native to Hawaii and a waterfall that gracefully falls right over the entrance. Some of the more experienced hikers like this area for the beauty of the waterfall, but not many have discovered what's behind it. I found this place by accident when I got lost hiking and decided to rest behind the waterfall on the night of a full moon over five years ago. Normally in the day time and other nights that aren't the full moon, the cliff opens up to reveal the sky, but on the full moon, the hole gets bigger and a waterfall falls around the large gap as well.

"This is beautiful." Cleo said as she took in her surroundings, I, of course, agreed with her. The other's eyes were wide as they looked at every little detail in my moon pool. I sighed and realised that we couldn't stay here, we had been swimming for a long time, and I for one wanted to get my legs back and deal with our circumstances.

"Come on guys, we have to get our legs back, I know a very secluded beach that we can pull ourselves up onto. We can't walk out of here, because it would take more than a day and none of us are dressed for hiking." I said, and reluctantly, after taking one last look at my beautiful home, I took a breath a started to go out the tunnel again. Once we were out, I lead the others to my favourite beach, it was my favourite because no one ever went there because it was so secluded and surrounded by sharks. We pulled ourselves up onto the beach and once Rikki dried all of us off, we set up the hill.

"I hate this hill." Cleo said, clutching a stitch at her side, I have to admit, I agree with her. The sun was coming up fast and just then a man started walking down the hill, obviously to go for a swim and then he stopped dead and looked right into my eyes.

"Excuse me, are you Arianna Fletcher by any chance." Steve McGarrett asked, but he had no doubt that this was her, Ari's heart sank, she was already recognised, and what if he knew and wanted to take her back to Australia.

"No," I said and started to walk off again, he started running to catch up with me.

"Look, I just want to talk about something your mother told me about 5 or 6 months ago." The man said again. "I know it's you." He added for good measure, Ari sighed, she wanted to get away but she was also curious.

"Who are you anyway?" I asked the man in irritation.

"I'm Steve McGarrett." He said, I lightened at that name, I knew his dad John, and he was the nicest man I had ever met.

"As in John McGarrett's son?" I asked curiously, just to make sure, he simply nodded.

"Look, why don't you come up to my house so we can talk, you guys all look starving anyway." He said, we looked at each other, we were pretty hungry, and swimming across the Pacific Ocean will do that to you. We all nodded together and he smiled and started leading the way. We followed reluctantly but I knew it was close. We got there in less than five minutes and he headed straight into the kitchen to make bacon and eggs.

"So, where's John?" I asked, I would love to see the older man again, Steve dropped his smile.

"Um, he's dead. He died about 6 months ago, murdered actually." Steve said sadly, I instantly regretted what I had said.

"I am so sorry." I started to say

"That's ok. Now, bacon and eggs are ready." He said as he grabbed the plates and set them down in front of my friends and me and we instantly tucked in. We finished pretty quickly and we all had to admit that he was a good cook, but that brought my memory to something else that Steve had said, my mum said something to him.

"So what did my mum say?" I asked curiously,

"Um, maybe you should read it for yourself." He said as he got up off his chair and went into the next room which I knew to be the study, when he came back he had a letter clasped in his hands. He gave me the letter and sat down without taking his eyes off me. I looked at the letter in my hands and opened it and read quickly and I could not believe my eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked hesitantly.

"No, I just found that when I came home for my dad's funeral, but it was written for six months beforehand. I haven't seen your mum, since, well, since it happened." He said calmly, I felt like he was telling the truth and I did feel some connection to him, I wasn't sure.

"Ari, what is it?" Bella asked curiously, I instantly handed them the letter and they skimmed over it before looking at me with shocked and uncertain eyes.

"Maybe you should do a paternity test." Emma said uncertainly, I looked at her.

"I couldn't afford that." I said sadly, Steve looked at me strangely.

"I would pay if you really wanted one." He said, looking me right in the eyes, he gave me the sense that he could read my mind and I made the decision to not lie to him, if I could.

"I couldn't let you do that, what do you do anyway." I asked, I should get to know the man that supposedly could be my father, that was my mother's hand writing and that was her selfish ways, I hoped it was true.

"Oh, um, I'm a Navy SEAL, but right now I'm in the reserves so I can run the Governor's task force, five-O, so, I'm kind of a cop." He said, trailing off. Wow, a SEAL, I knew the kind of training they went through, it was brutal, this guy was tough.

"Wow, that's pretty incredible." I said, voicing my thoughts, he just shrugged it off, typical SEAL, I had to smile at that.

"It is what it is." He said, typical. I saw out of the corner of my eyes that the others were all looking at each other, and I turned to look at them, confusion present on my face. Chiming of a cell phone brought my attention back to my possible father.

"McGarrett." He answered quickly, with my super fish hearing I could hear the other side of the conversation.

"McGarrett, we have a situation down on Waikiki Beach, your team and HPD will handle it but I need to talk to you, meet me in my office in half an hour."

"Yes, sir, I'll be right there." He said, bitterness in his voice. "Look, I'm sorry guy but I have to go to work, is there a number that I can call you on so we could meet up later." He asked hopefully, I checked my pockets, passport, wallet, no phone though, I looked at the others, they all had their phones, but no chargers and all of them were dead. Steve looked at me suspiciously as we told him our phones were dead and we didn't have the chargers.

"I'll leave you with my dad's old phone then. Oh," he said as he started pulling on his jacket, "I mean it about paying for the test, if you want it." He said, and he quickly walked out the door.

"So, what do you think Ari." Cleo asked, "I mean, what are you going to do about that." She said pointing out the door where Steve just left.

"I have no idea, but I kind of hope he is my dad. I mean, well, look at my parents back in Australia." I said, really hoping that it was true.

"Yeah, but what if he reacts in the same way." Rikki said, I groaned but she had a good point.

"Maybe he will, but I don't really get that sense from him." I said, it was true, he didn't present himself like that sort of person.

"Ok let's talk about something else, one, we need somewhere to crash, two, we need some new clothes and a shower, and three, we need phones." Emma said, predictable as always, I had to grin at that.

"And let's not forget that since Ari wiped their memories, we're probably reported missing." Bella added, we all groaned.

"Ok, let's go get some clothes and new phones. How much money do we all have?" Emma said, ignoring the part about us being reported missing.

"I have about 2,000." Rikki said.

"I have almost 15,000." Cleo said, we all looked at her surprised. "What? I've been saving for the last four years for a car once I get to uni."

"I have about 500." Bella said sadly.

"I have just over a grand." Emma said, and now for the big news, the money I had been hiding for over 6 years.

"I have about 200 grand in a bank account that my parents don't know about." They all looked at me like I was crazy.

"How on earth do you have that much?" Emma asked.

"My Grandma on my mum's side died just over 6 years ago and she left everything to me and set it all up in a bank account for me. She was really rich, she left me that much and I haven't touched it, but the rest of her money is due to be released to me once I turn 18." I said shyly.

"Wait, how much are you going to get once you turn 18?" Bella asked.

"I don't know exactly, but they said her estate was worth over 10 million dollars." I said, looking down at my feet.

"How the hell doesn't your mum know about this?" Rikki asked

"My gran didn't exactly like her a whole lot, so essentially she quietly set that up for me and everyone was told that she gave it all to charity. My mum was pissed. I think my gran knew that my dad wasn't my dad. I also have a house here in Hawaii that my mum doesn't know about, it's a mansion." I said, my face going bright red.

"Let's go shopping then." Rikki said excitedly.

"We'll have to use my card because they'll have traces on yours." I said, getting up from my seat. "It's a fair walk from here to the shops."

"How do you know this stuff about cops and the navy?" Cleo asked me curiously.

"I have always wanted to be a police officer for HPD." I admitted.

"Wow, I never knew that about you." She replied as she followed me to the front of the house. I rolled my eyes and we all headed down to the shops near Waikiki beach. It was a long walk and we desperately needed a shower, we all smelt like salt water and body odour. We had fun for about an hour buying clothes and duffels and cell phones, then headed up to the Hilton to book a suite, we were lucky that not a lot of tourists were around that day so we got one without a reservation. I booked for the entire week and we excitedly walked up to the room so we could all have showers and change into different clothes.

It took nearly an hour for everyone to shower and wash their hair and change into their new clothes but we all felt more relaxed when we did. Suddenly the old phone chimed and it could only be one person, my face lit up without my knowledge as I went to answer it.

"Hey, it's Arianna." I said in a happy voice.

"Hey, it's Steve, I need to talk to you for a bit, where are you." He said, I was nervous at the sound of his voice.

"Um, yeah, sure, we're at the Hilton, room 297." I said anxiously.

"Ok, I'll be there in a few, I'm just down at Waikiki." He said and I nervously hung up the phone.

"Um, Steve's coming here in a bit." I said, I was still nervous and I didn't know why, they just nodded and I sat down on the bed, nervously waiting.

"What's the matter, Ari?" Bella asked me curiously,

"I dunno, there was something about Steve's voice that was different from this morning." I said truthfully, before long we heard the ultimate beep of the scanner.

"Hey, it's me." I rolled my eyes happily and buzzed him up. He came quickly and there was someone there with him.

"Hey guys, this is Danny, my partner." Steve said once he got inside the door, we all nodded and waved and said hello.

"What did you want, Steve?" I asked, my nervous voice had come back.

"Oh, um, yeah. Do you guys mind telling me why there are absolutely no records of you coming to Hawaii, or that you are even in Hawaii and why have you all been reported missing."


	3. Chapter 3

"Um, well, you see, we, uhh." This was difficult to explain, Steve and his friend wanted to know how we got here and why we were reported missing. "It's difficult to explain." I looked into Steve's sharp eyes and knew that I wasn't leaving until I did explain, I turned to my friends desperate for help.

"Well, Ari got into a massive fight with her parents, we mean massive. And then everyone was saying really mean things about her and we decided to just leave for a while." Cleo said, her eyes full of tears and I knew she was thinking about her family and how they would be worried about her.

"Guys, your parents would be so worried about you, didn't you think of them first?" Danny said sadly.

"Look, they were helping me. I'm sorry we didn't tell anyone where we were going but we did have a good reason." I said, I knew the girls were missing their families despite what had happened.

"And what was that good reason?" Steve asked angrily, his hands on his hips.

"My parents found out a secret of mine, of ours, that no one was meant to know and flipped out, I had to leave." I said sadly, I was trying to keep them out of the truth, but this was a Navy SEAL and a police officer, I had no chance in hell.

"What secret?" Danny said sternly, jeez I kind of felt sorry for his kid, he could be angry when he wanted to be. I turned to Cleo and told everyone what I was thinking, they all nodded at me.

"Ok, we have to go to the beach by Steve's house, no one goes there and I'll show you." I said, fear grappling at my stomach.

"Can't you tell us?" Steve asked sternly.

"You wouldn't believe us, but if you saw it, then you'd have to." Emma said as she got up and grabbed her bag and we all left, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

We got down to the beach fairly quickly, luckily Steve and Danny had two cars so we could all fit, I was riding shotgun with Steve driving and Cleo and Emma in the back. He kept throwing me nervous glances, I couldn't tell if it was about this mysterious secret we had or if it was about the fact that he just met his daughter earlier today, I was still freaked out about that thought. They both parked at Steve's house and we slowly walked down to the beach. My gut was telling me that they wouldn't react the same way as our parents did, it was the first time I was doubting my gut. I walked over to the water and turned to look at Steve and Danny.

"Please don't freak out or anything." I said, my voice pleading, I gulped down some air and placed both my feet in the water and counted down; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and I was on the sand, I could feel my legs fusing together and looked back at my ice-blue tail and then towards Steve and Danny. There were a few emotions on their face, concern, confusion, amazement, shock, sympathy. But no disgust or hatred towards us. I looked over at Rikki and she came and dried me off and we all walked up to Steve and Danny.

"Now you know." I simply said, the shock was still present on both their faces.

"Ari, you should have told me. So, Sarina and David found out and what?" Steve asked me, concern flooding his face, and yeah, I think I love him.

"They called a marine biologist, one that Emma, Rikki and Cleo have had some experience with, she wanted to lock me up and do experiments on me." He pulled me into a big hug.

"Ok, I realise why you guys left, but why are your parents so worried if they were going to do that?" Steve asked, Danny was still in shock judging by the expression on his face.

"Ari wiped their memories so the evil scientist wouldn't come looking for us." Rikki said, looking towards the ocean.

"You can wipe people's memories." Danny asked, snapping out of his state of shock.

"Well, yeah, we all have a power and kind of sub-powers to go with the powers. We're strong and can do things that people only dream of, that's how we managed to get away from such a large group of people." I said, looking down at my feet.

"So how did you get here?" Steve asked curiously.

"We swam," Bella said, looking at them with a knowing look.

"You swam all the way from Queensland to Hawaii?" Steve and Danny nearly shouted together, we simply nodded.

"No wonder you guys looked famished, you'd been swimming for days on end." Steve said as he was watching Danny who was looking at his watch.

Danny sighed, "I have to go pick Grace up, but there's no one to watch her, we still have a case." He said, looking towards Steve. My friends and I all gave each other excited looks.

"Is Grace your daughter?" Cleo asked curiously.

"Yeah, she is." He replied looking at us suspiciously.

"How old is she?" Emma asked, smirking.

"Eight, why?" Danny said, still glaring at us suspiciously.

"Well, you do have five responsible teenagers that would love to look after her." Bella said, smiling widely. Danny seemed to contemplate it for a while, looking in between Steve and then back at the five of us, who were begging.

He sighed. "Okay, fine, you can look after her, but just make sure she's okay and gets a good meal and gets to bed at a reasonable hour." We all nodded excitedly before he continued. "Does any of you have a driver's license?" we all continued nodding and he rolled his eyes.

"You can take my car to pick her up, there's enough room so all of you can fit." Steve said throwing the keys towards me.

"Don't worry," I said.

"Yeah, you have five powerful mermaids to look after your daughter, you'll be just fine." Bella added and we ran laughing up the hill. Danny and Steve looked at each other with a bemused expression and followed, without the laughing.

I could not believe that Danny allowed us to babysit his little girl, I was astounded but very excited, he gave us the address and I instantly knew the area, poshville, ugh. We pulled up to the kerb outside the correct house and we decided that I should be the one to go get Grace, seeing as her mum was still there. I walked up to the large mansion and knocked on the door and waited patiently. Before long it was opened by a tall and very beautiful woman with curious eyes and long brown hair.

"Yes, can I help you?" She asked.

"Um, are you Mrs. Edwards?" I asked nervously.

"Yes, I am and who are you." She replied, crossing her arms and looking at me sternly.

"I'm Arianna, uh, McGarrett. I'm Steve's daughter, Danny couldn't pick Grace up because he's busy working on a case and he said it would be ok if I and my four friends babysit Grace?" I asked, my cheeks going red, she looked too stern and I didn't think she was going to let us.

"Grace." She called up the stairs and a little girl came tumbling down them, almost tripping on the last step and came bounding to stand next to her mother.

"This is Arianna, she is Steve's daughter, she's here to look after you, would you like that?" the woman asked Grace, Grace looked at me and smiled and nodded vehemently.

"We'll take really good care of her, I promise." I said and she nodded and smiled and told Grace to get her bag. Before long Grace had her bag, which I carried as it looked like she was having some trouble with it and we went to Steve's car.

"So are you really Uncle Steve's daughter?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, I am Grace, my mum never told him and we only found out recently."

"That's pretty cool, we could be like sisters, I've never had a sister before." She said excitedly.

"Well, you know what Grace, I'd love to have you as a sister, so," I said as I opened the door for her to get in and I followed afterwards. "What should we do while the responsible ones are gone?" I asked and we both cracked a mischievous smile.

"Who are your friends?" she asked curiously, realising we weren't alone in the car, I laughed.

"These are Bella, Emma, Cleo and Rikki." I said pointing to each one who waved and smiled at her. "So back to the hotel room?" And Emma, the driver, nodded and started the engine and headed off in the right direction. We took the half an hour drive, a chance to get to know Grace, she was pretty adorable. We decided to stop to get some movies for us to watch, we let Grace pick, and somehow I didn't think Danny would want her watching Mean Girls, which was a shame. She picked out some Disney movies, the Lion King, 101 Dalmatians, the Princess and the Frog and the Little Mermaid. We all had to laugh at that last one a little.

"Ok, Gracie, which one would you like to watch first?" Bella asked nicely.

"The Little Mermaid, I've never seen it before." She replied excitedly, of course she wanted to see a movie about mermaids, I think every little girl who saw this movie wanted to be a mermaid at some point or other, including me.

"Well, that is a pretty good movie, we'll put it on first thing when we get back to our room." I said smiling and sharing a knowing look with the other girls. We bought some food for dinner as our room had a little kitchen and some snacks for the movies before we decided we had enough food and started heading back to our hotel room. We pulled all the beds together in the large room and put on The Little Mermaid for Grace to watch, I admit, sometimes it is good to watch those kids' movies, I hadn't seen The Little Mermaid in a long time and it would be good to watch it from the perspective of a mermaid. In just over an hour, the movie was over and I, for one, could not understand Ariel, she wanted to give up her fins so badly to be a human.

"Ok, let's make dinner." I called out as I walked over to the kitchen, I was a fairly good cook, my grandma taught me most of what I know, but this dish I have made so many times, spaghetti bolognaise, I put some vegetables in the sauce so it would blend in and Grace would still get a good meal. I finished grating the vegetables and added it to the sauce, which I mixed together, before browning the mince and putting the pasta on the stove, I added the vegetable filled sauce and simmered until the pasta was ready. I grabbed 6 bowls out of the cupboard and filled them with the pasta. Grace seemed to love it, I couldn't tell if she knew whether or not there were vegetables in the pasta. While we ate, we put the next movie on, The Princess and the Frog and started snacking on popcorn. We talked and laughed and had a lot of fun, Bella and Cleo started braiding Grace's hair as we put the next movie on but Grace fell asleep half way through the movie. So we tucked her in a proceeded to go to sleep as well.

. . . .

I awoke the next morning to the sound of knocking on the door and assumed that it was Danny and Steve. I got up grumpily and answered the door without thinking to check in the peephole firstly. I was standing in front of three angry detectives, judging from the uniform, they were Australian Police Officers.

"Arianna Fletcher, we are taking you back to Australia, we'll help you pack." He said and barged through the door.

"Wait, what about Grace?" I asked, hoping that he would call Danny, because if Danny knew, then Steve knew and that meant saviour.

"_You guys all want to go home, don't you?" _I asked through my thoughts.

"_Yeah, we're sorry Ari, we just miss them and we know that you won't want to leave, so I guess this is goodbye." _Cleo said sadly, a single tear dropped from my eye, I would miss my friends, but I could always catch up with them.

"_I know you wanted to go, it's ok, we can catch up. I'll miss you guys terribly though." _I thought sadly.

"_I'm so sorry Ari, we all are." _Bella thought, her mind voice was teary, I looked at them and nodded as Grace ran to me and started hugging me, tears rushing down her face. I'd done it know, Danny would never let me babysit her again, I knelt down to her height.

"Shh, Gracie, it's ok, I'm here for you." I said quietly, one of the police officers looked at me.

"I want my daddy." She said loudly, gulping back the tears.

"I know sweetie, it's ok, we'll get the nice policemen to call him and he'll be here soon to pick you up, Danno will be here soon Gracie." I said, trying to soothe her.

"What's her father's name and number." The bossy police man asked me and threw me a pad and a pen. I quickly wrote down Daniel Williams and his phone number and gave it back to the man and he proceeded to call him.

"Danny." He answered, I thanked god that he didn't use Detective Sergeant Williams instead.

"Mr Williams, we are from the AFP and we have just located 5 missing girls, your daughter, Grace Williams was with them. We are in the Hilton Hawaiian Village room 297, please come quickly and collect your daughter." He said, in his bossy voice.

"Don't move, I'll be two minutes." I could hear him say, please have Steve with you, there was a high chance, those two were always together, it was kind of cute. Before long we heard a knock on the door and the kindly police man opened the door and Danny and Steve came through.

"I am Detective Raige, and these are officers Ashton and Twining." The bossy man said, holding out his arm, Danny took it politely but Steve didn't.

"What are you doing here?" he asked rudely and I had to smile, I looked at him sneakily and pointed to the other girls and mouthed 'want to go home.' He nodded to tell me he received the messages.

The bossy Detective stepped forwards, "I came here to take these five girls, that have been terribly missed by their families, home."

"I think what Steve meant to say, was, why didn't you have HPD take the girls to the airport instead of flying all the way out here to take the girls back." Danny said, trying to calm the situation.

"Well, HPD is undermined by the Governor's task force, and we didn't really trust in that." Officer Ashton stated, uh oh, now they've done it.

"Oh, did you happen to notice the names of the people that are in the Governor's task force by any chance?" Danny said, crossing his arms tightly over his chest.

"Well, there was a Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett and Detective Sargent…Daniel Williams…" the bossy Detective paused as he noticed the name he just said and looked at Danny and also realised he was outranked.

"Yeah, we are the Governor's task force." Danny said, his arm around Grace.

"Regardless, we are here to take the five girls back to their homes in Australia." He said angrily.

"Sure, you can take Emma, Rikki, Cleo and Bella back to Australia, they want to go, but Arianna is a Hawaiian citizen, so you cannot take her." Steve said, smirking slightly.

"Her parents are worried sick right now, they miss their daughter, let her come home, I'm sure she wants to." Detective Raige said and turned to me. "Sweetie, you want to go home to your parents, don't you?" he asked in a sickly sweet voice, I turned to Steve and we smirked, it was almost identical, no DNA test required, I was a McGarrett.

"Nope, my ohana is in Hawaii." I said smiling at Steve.

"Look, I'm sure you two are excellent police officers, but this young lady needs to be taken to her parents." Detective Raige said, stepping right in front of Steve.

"If Sarina wants to see her, you tell her that she has to come here, to Hawaii to see her, and when she gets her she should expect custody papers, I should be able to get to know my own daughter on my terms." He said, shaking with anger.

Within the next half an hour, the other girls were all packed and hugged me goodbye. I had packed too, because Steve told me that he wanted to get to know me properly, and that I should move in with him. He set my room up really nicely, apparently it was his room as a teenager. He painted it an ice-blue colour and told me it was because of the colour of my tail, I couldn't believe that, not only was Steve ok with me being a mermaid, he painted my room the colour of my tail.

I proceeded to place my scarce belongings in the wardrobe and then went to explore Steve's house. There were four large bedrooms, one of them was now mine, a study area, the kitchen and dining room and a large family room. Each room was fair and had paint coming off the walls in chips, it needed a new coat of paint, and some personal touches, I thought to myself, but I couldn't be bothered especially with the thought that my mother was coming here and soon.

. . . .

The next few days passed without much events, I swam and Danny and Steve caught the island's bad guys. I hadn't got to meet the rest of his team yet, but he promised I would soon, that's what I was planning and cooking for, Chin Ho Kelly and Lori Weston were coming over, apparently they used to have another member, Kono Kalakaua, but she lost her badge for something that Steve wouldn't tell me, he made it sound like it was his fault. I decided that I should pay her a visit sometime soon.

A knock on the door brought my attention back to the real world, I knew Steve was in the living room and would get the door, it was his friends after all. I heard faint conversation that sounded angry and tuned my excellent hearing to hear my mum and fake dad whisper-yelling at Steve who was replying just as vehemently. I had to smirk at that, he wasn't just letting them yell at him, he was giving some back.

"Steve, we want to see our daughter." Sarina said angrily.

"Oh, you know, I might have wanted to see her and get to know her when she was born. I come home for my father's funeral and I see this strange little letter." He said angrily.

"I am sorry Steven, but I had to, it is what's best for her."

"No offense Sarina, but she's 17 years old, she'll be eighteen in just over a month, don't you think she can make her own decisions." Steve said, I could hear the growl in his voice.

"Steve, she's still a child, and children make mistakes, like coming here for one thing, when I get my hands on her, she is so grounded." Sarina said just as angrily, I scowled, I will never be grounded by her again.

"Look, you may be her biological father, but I'm her real father, I'm the dad she's known all her life." Dave said sadly.

"Only because I didn't have a choice in the matter." Steve said furiously.

"I don't care what you have to say Steven, I am taking my daughter home and that is final." Sarina said, I could hear her eyes popping, she did that when she was mad.

"Well, you'll have to go to court first, I'm filing for custody. Now if you don't mind, I'm having some friends over, so get out of my property." Steve said angrily.

"Not until I see my daughter Steven."

"Ma'am, I am going to have to ask you to leave the premises." Said a familiar voice, Danny

"And who the hell are you?" my dad said angrily.

"Who the hell am I? I happen to be a police officer sir, so are the two people next to me and that man behind you. I suggest you leave peacefully before we force you out." Danny said, a hint of anger in his voice as I heard his footsteps stepping towards my parents.

"Please Steve, let us see her." My dad begged.

"That's her decision." Steve said quietly.

"You don't give a child a decision like that Steven, you don't even know what you're doing." I heard my mum say shrilly.

"Ari, do you want to come and see Sarina and David?" Steve called up to me, I knew he could see me as he peered around the corner at the raised kitchen.

"No." I replied sweetly.

"Arianna Rose Fletcher, you get down here right now and come home." I heard my mum say, using the full name and all.

"No." I said again, in the same sweet tone.

"Arianna, listen to your mother." My dad said, I rolled my eyes.

"Steve, could you make them go away, please?" I asked sweetly.

"Sure thing Ari."

Steve looked at Sarina and David, "Please leave, she doesn't want you here and neither do I."

"This isn't the end Steven, I'm her guardian and right now, you're kidnapping her." My mum said angrily.

"No, he's not, I'm here at my own will." I said, a little louder. My parents looked at each other and went out the door.

"See you at court." My mum said laughing.


End file.
